Efficacy for a New Live Attenuated Salmonella Enteritidis Vaccine Candidate to Reduce Internal Egg Contamination

To evaluate the efficacy of a novel attenuated Salmonella Enteritidis (Delta lon Delta cpxR) vaccine candidate (JOL919), chickens were immunized through oral and intramuscular routes to reduce egg contamination against S. Enteritidis challenge. Birds were orally immunized with JOL919 on the first day of life and were subsequently boosted in the 6th and 16th weeks through oral (group B) or intramuscular (group C) route, while control birds were unimmunized (group A). The chickens of all groups were challenged intravenously with the virulent S. Enteritidis strain in the 24th week. The immunized groups B and C showed significantly higher plasma IgG and intestinal secretory IgA levels as compared to those of the control group. The lymphocyte proliferation response and CD45(+)CD3(+) T-cell number in the peripheral blood of the groups B and C were significantly increased. In addition, the egg contamination rates were significantly lower in the group B (0%, 10.7% and 0%) and the group C (3.6%, 14.3% and 3.6%) as compared to the group A (28.6%, 42.8% and 28.6%) in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd weeks post-challenge. All animals in the groups B and C showed lower organ lesion scores in the liver and spleen and lower bacterial counts in the liver, spleen and ovary at the 3rd week post-challenge. These results indicate that this vaccine candidate can be an efficient tool for prevention of Salmonella infections by inducing protective humoral and cellular immune responses. In addition, this vaccine did not prevent egg contamination, but did appear to reduce incidence. Booster immunizations, especially via oral administration route, showed an efficient protection against internal egg contamination with S. Enteritidis.